1. Field
This invention relates generally to telecommunications, and more specifically, to a process to initiate a service session by making a call.
2. Related Art
Since the early 1970, new usages of voice communication have been introduced that allow a person to use a telephone to interact with a machine. Such usages are typically deployed for customer to business communication. In the simplest form, a person makes a telephone call to obtain information, such as location or business hours, from a recorded announcement machine of a merchant. Other more sophisticated usages include call center applications enabled by Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technologies. Such applications range from simple pin code authentication, merchandise ordering, ticket reservation, service scheduling, to complex class registration and financial transactions.
With the rapid commercialization of the Internet in the 1990s, a new form of customer to business communication emerges. A person can use a Web browser to obtain complex information from a business, and conduct sophisticated transactions, such as on-line shopping and on-line banking. This communication method has advantages over its voice counterpart, such as accurate data input, effective data presentation and navigation, no-loss data transmission, and mature security measures, such as on-demand data encryption and strong authentication methods.
Advanced data technologies, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and client-side cookies, among others, further enhance customer to business interaction as communication and transactions history can be maintained beyond an autonomous communication session.
While providing convenience for customers, businesses manage and offer these methods of communication separately.
In one scenario, when a customer wishes to communicate with a business, he will have to decide whether to make a telephone call to the business' call center, or to connect to the business' Web site. In another scenario, while surfing the business' Web site, a customer may want to talk to a service representative of the business. In yet another scenario, while engaged in a telephone call with a service representative of a business, a customer may have a need to get information from the business' Web site. In one other scenario, a customer has made a reservation with a vacation resort over a telephone call, but will have to remember the Web site and a reservation number when she wants to find out updated details about the reservation.
The above scenarios illustrate the need to integrate voice and data communication between customers and businesses such that a customer can make a call to reach a business, automatically over voice communication, data communication, or both.